


Shoot For The Stars

by Blizzard96



Series: The Hallyu Region [2]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Gen, I just didn't want to tag twenty three people, Pokemon, all the members are in here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:15:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28315872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzard96/pseuds/Blizzard96
Summary: Taeyong wants to reward the Battle Frontier members for working so hard. Donghyuck realizes that the only way to win is to ensure that everyone else loses. Jisung regrets shaking Pyukumuku's hand, and not just because it was a little slimy.
Series: The Hallyu Region [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1412929
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	Shoot For The Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ElliotsArchives](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElliotsArchives/gifts).



Being in charge of twenty two young adults, some of who were incapable of frying an egg or though that doing laundry was a hobby more than a necessity, left Lee Taeyong understandably stressed about maintaining a safe and, more importantly, _hygienic_ Battle Frontier. The floors constantly needed sweeping, the windows were perpetually smudged, and the laundry hamper was endlessly overflowing with clothing. Taeyong was certain he spent more money just keeping the washers and dryers running than on any of the Battle Frontier’s other amenities.

And so it was inevitable that the other twenty two Frontier members would eventually have to pitch in to keep the building up and running, despite any of their protests. But how to motivate a veritable dorm’s worth of boys to complete necessary but unexciting household chores? That was where Taeyong’s most beloved invention came into play.

The Good Noodle Chart.

The concept was so simple that Taeyong hadn’t been certain it would work at first. Surely an unassuming board stuck to the wall and only the promise of stickers as a reward for a job well done wouldn’t motivate his charges to remember their responsibilities when so many of his other tactics had failed, right? Wrong.

“I never knew so many people would want to be Good Noodles,” Taeyong said to his Staraptor, Track, while shaking his head as he placed a shiny gold Staryu sticker next to Jisung’s name. Said boy was standing a few feet away, nearly vibrating with excitement as the sticker was added. Louder Taeyong said, “Good job, Jisung! Thank you for helping dry the dishes today.”

“Star!” Track chirped.

“It’s no problem!” Jisung said, apparently taking Taeyong’s acknowledgement as permission to leave as he bolted out the door. “Hey, Jeno! Guess who has more stars now?!” came Jisung’s distant yell. There was a muted groaning from what Taeyong guessed were a number of the other younger members.

Taeyong grinned and stepped back from the chart, surveying the lines of stars next to all the Frontier members’ names. It was only the first week of the month, and already the rows columns were filling up with stickers. “They really worked hard this month, huh?”

“Raptor!” Track bobbed its head.

“Maybe we should do something special for whoever has the most with it being the end of the year and all,” Taeyong said, tilting his head. “Now, what would be a good reward?”

“Star?”

“It can’t just be dinner, they’ve all done so much.”

“Star! Raptor!”

“That’s it!” He beamed at his Pokemon. “You have the best ideas.” Staraptor puffed up its chest smugly as if to say, ‘was there ever any doubt?’

* * *

“Thank you all for coming, I’ll keep this short,” Taeyong said, staring around the large common area at all the members. Donghyuck raised his hand. His Pyukumuku copied his action by projecting its own mouth hand “Wait until I’m done explaining and I’ll answer any questions you all have.” The hands were lowered.

“Alright, I just want to begin by saying thank you all for working so hard this month even though we’re only in the first week,” Taeyong said, Track nodding along at his side. “Track and I were talking, and we wanted to do something special since you all have been doing so well not just this month, but this whole year.”

“Raptor!”

“Therefore, this month we have decided to have a special prize for whoever has the most stars by the end of the month. The Best Noodle!”

“Raptor!”

Hands shot up around the room, but Taeyong shook his head. “Wait, there’s more,” The hands reluctantly lowered again. “I spent a long time thinking about what could be a prize, and I wanted to be special. Therefore, whoever has the most stars by the end of the month will be given an All-You-Can-Eat Pass to the Battle Buffet along with a week long trip to Galar to do some sightseeing with _one_ ,” he stressed the word, “Other member.” He tried not to laugh as the members around the circle started to fidget with barely restrained tension. “Okay, I’ll take questions now.”

Half a dozen hands went up.

“When does the Battle Buffet Pass go into effect, and how long is it good for?” Jungwoo blurted as soon as Taeyong pointed to him.

“It will go into effect on the first of next year and the offer is valid for the whole first month of the year, but only for one day once you use it” Taeyong replied. Jaemin also lowered his hand, apparently having had the same question.

“Which week is the trip to Galar?” Doyoung asked, “Our schedules can be pretty cramped.”

“I’ll work that out with the winner and the person they choose to go with,” Taeyong said. “Don’t worry, I don’t have tickets booked yet.”

“When is the cutoff point to get more stars?” Renjun asked, glancing at the Good Noodle chart.

“The last day of this month at noon. I’ll need time to count, and we’ll have the announcement at dinner.” A few members started whispering nervously to others at that.

“Can people still lose stars?” Donghyuck asked with an expression far too carefully crafted to be completely innocent.

Taeyong narrowed his eyes. “Yes, members can lose stars as always… why?”

“No reason.”

Taeyong paused for a second, but decided that pursuing that line of questioning would lead nowhere. “Alright. Johnny?”

“Is it only to Galar?”

“Yes, a trip to any other region is out of our price range at the moment.” He looked around, but there seemed to be no other questions. “Well, if any of you have any questions later, just ask me. Otherwise, keep working hard you guys! Thanks!” He dismissed the meeting. Some members peeled off in pairs or small groups to chat with each other, likely planning on the best strategy to go about winning.

“Hopefully this will motivate them to stay clean,” Taeyong murmured to Track.

“Raptor,” Track replied, though there was a note of doubt in its voice.

* * *

“Alright, let’s be honest here, there’s no way we’ll win at the rate we’re going,” Donghyuck said, leveling Jisung with a look. His Pyukumuku jiggled in agreement with its Trainer’s words.

“There’s not?” Jisung asked, looking a bit discouraged, “But I just got a star!”

Donghyuck snorted. “Please. As if either of us would stand a chance against ‘goody two shoes’ Mark or ‘can do no wrong’ Jeno. Even the new kids are getting into Taeyong’s good books faster than us, and we’ve been here for years.”

“I’ve been the Good Noodle of the Month before though!” Jisung protested.

“Back in January!” Donghyuck said, “That was almost a year ago!”

Jisung crossed his arms. “Well, you’ve NEVER been Good Noodle of the Month.”

Donghyuck nodded the point. “Yes, but you realize that you definitely won’t be Good Noodle this month unless you come up with a plan. You’ve seen the chart.”

Jisung deflated a bit because he had, and he was lagging in points behind Sungchan, Mark, WinWin and at least three other members. “I…”

“Trust me,” Donghyuck said, which immediately had Jisung pulling a face. “Look, the strategy right now is not just to earn points, but to make sure others lose points.”

“What?”

“I’m saying that we have to sabotage the others. Look, of the two of us, you have more stars. If you agree to take me with you to Galar, I’ll help make sure you win the competition.”

“I’m not sure cheating would be a good idea in this contest,” Jisung said.

“It’s not cheating!” Donghyuck said, “There aren’t any rules! And it’s not like anyone will get punished just for losing a star on the chart. This is just… insurance.”

“I don’t know…”

“Would I steer you wrong?”

“Yes.”

“Okay,” Donghyuck switched tactics, “Well, would I ever want to lose a competition?”

Jisung bit his lip. “No, I guess not.”

“Right! I want to win, and if I win then that means _you_ win. It’s win-win. I mean, win-win, not WinWin. I- you get it.”

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

“So. Do we have a deal?” Donghyuck asked. The Pyukumuku on his head extended its mouth hand for Jisung to shake.

Jisung frowned carefully weighing his options. On one hand, this whole thing had the potential to blow up in both his and Donghyuck’s faces. On the other, Jisung had _really_ wanted to go see all the shops in Galar…

“Fine,” Jisung said, squaring his shoulders, “Deal.” He reached up to shake Pyukumuku’s hand, regretting it almost instantly as Donghyuck’s grin turned downright feral.

“Excellent. You’ve made a wise decision, Park Jisung.”

* * *

“Not trying to be a Good Noodle?” Doyoung asked as he rounded the corner to see Ten leisurely throwing ice and various chopped vegetables into a blender. “I saw half the others doing chores already to try and get Taeyong’s attention.”

“I’ll get to it. I have plans,” Ten said, waving a hand. He turned back to the cutting board to slice up some celery. “What about you?”

Doyoung shrugged as he opened up the fridge door. He glanced through the shelves. “I’m on laundry duty today. Taeyong gives automatic stars for that.” He settled on pulling out a cup of yogurt and shut the fridge door before beginning to rifle through the drawers for a spoon. “Also I was planning on doing the dishes after lunch.”

“I thought Chenle was on dish duty,” Ten said, throwing celery stalks into the blender.

“He always forgets,” Doyoung replied, finally finding a spoon and peeling off the yogurt lid to toss in the trash.

“I wouldn’t count on it today,” Ten said, “I heard the kids plotting in their rooms last night with the door open. They’re all pretty desperate to win. Alliances forming everywhere.”

“Pairing up for the Galar trip?” Doyoung asked. Ten nodded. “Huh. Who are you planning on inviting if you win?”

Ten shrugged. “Probably Johnny? He seems pretty familiar with the subway systems over there. Maybe Kun since he does a lot of research before he travels and could probably find all the good food spots.”

Doyoung nodded. “Makes sense.” He glanced at Ten’s blender, and frowned. There was something red in the chamber, but he didn’t recall seeing anything red on Ten’s cutting board. He was about to ask, but Ten was already absentmindedly popping the lid on the top and pressing the button to grind it up. Doyoung shrugged it off.

They stood in silence for a few minutes, both leaning against the counter as the noise of the blender filled the room. Ten poured the resulting mixture into a glass, Doyoung grimacing at the grayish-tan color.

Ten rolled his eyes. “Make whatever face you want, this is nutritious.”

“I’m sure you’re right, but that color is definitely not naturally occurring.”

Ten grinned. “Wanna try a sip?”

“No thanks,” Doyoung said, “I’m pretty sure that thing would achieve sentience as soon as it hit my stomach.”

“Wimp,” Ten said, taking a big gulp. At that very moment Taeyong entered the room.

“Hey-“ Doyoung began, turning toward the Frontier leader, only to yelp as Ten suddenly spit his drink out all over the floor in one giant, disgusting spray. “AGH!”

“Ah sh- Ten!” Taeyong yelped, jumping back.

Ten coughed once, then proceeded to spit the rest of what was in his mouth in the sink. “Fuck! Strawberry!”

“My _shoes!”_ Doyoung complained, looking at flecks of sludge had landed on the sides of his Converse.

Taeyong glared at Ten. “You’re cleaning that up,” he said. “Actually.” Taeyong crossed the room to the Good Noodle chart. Doyoung couldn’t hold in his gasp.

“No, wait!” Ten said, having recovered. His eyes were wide as Taeyong moved a hand toward Ten’s column.

“Clean it up!” Taeyong said, pulling two Staryu stickers from under Ten’s name. Ten immediately pouted as Taeyong left the room.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Ten said, turning to Doyoung. “There were strawberries in my drink! You know how I feel about fruit!” He held up the still half full glass as proof. Doyoung peered into the glass, but could only see tan sludge. He frowned as he recalled the red bits he saw in the blender before Ten had started it. Had that been strawberry? But who could have put it there?

Neither of them noticed two figures hastily retreating from the kitchen, mission successful.

* * *

Mark was trying to be on his best behavior. Honestly, he wasn’t too worried about his position. He was currently in the lead on the Good Noodle chart, and usually the only way he ever lost stars was by stealing, er, visiting the baby dragons at ATEEZ’s Gym. Though it hurt his heart, Mark could sacrifice his normal visits to the dragons for a month if it meant getting to go see the Galar region (and it’s massive city with a dragon shaped gate) for once. He hummed as he continued shoveling the long Frontier driveway, confident in his place as Best Noodle. His Altaria huddled up behind him, keeping him warm against the biting winter air.

It was when he was two thirds of the way down the driveway that Mark noticed a fresh layer of tracks in the snow, leading from the driveway into the bordering woods. He crouched down to examine the prints closer. They were small, likely belonging to a newly hatched or younger Pokemon. He glanced around, but saw no Pokemon in the area. The tracks almost looked like they belonged to a Dragon type, but what would one be doing all the way out here…?

“I should leave it alone,” Mark muttered to his Altaria. It cooed questioningly. “Yeah. I should just. I should just leave it.”

He turned back to the driveway and kept shoveling.

“Gi!” a distant but loud cry broke Mark’s concentration. His head shot up.

“Did you hear that?” he asked Altaria.

“Al?”

“We should check it out. What if it’s hurt?” He stuck his shovel into the deep snow and started trudging toward the forest. His worry grew as the cries started coming again. If it really was a baby dragon, it was in danger here. Dragon types were susceptible to Ice and snow, and if its body temperature got too low it might even-

Mark stopped as he found a out of place cardboard box sitting at the bottom of a tree. It moved slightly and a muffled cry sounded from it. “Gi!”

He looked to Altaria and then back to the box. He moved closer slowly as it started bumping back and forth, before he finally opened it, ready to jump back in case anything might leap at him. Nothing did. Instead what he found was, indeed, a baby Gible sitting in the box. It was swaddled in blankets with a couple covered hot water bottles nestled around it, all still warm. Despite the weather outside, the baby dragon was in no danger of freezing anytime soon.

Mark lifted the baby dragon out of the box and cradled in his arms. “How did you get out here little guy?

“Gi!” the Gible said, grinning toothily at Mark before trying to gnaw on his arm. He turned to Altaria. “Let’s get him back to the Frontier.”

“Taria!”

They hurried back to the building, quickly rushing toward the large fireplace in the common room, thankfully already lit. The Gible chirped happily as Mark set it down on the rug before running around in circles a few times and ultimately settling sleepily in front of the fire.

“Well, guess we should see if-“

“MARK LEE!!” Taeyong’s voice boomed from behind him, making Mark flinch and waking the baby Gible back up. It squeaked in alarm, and Mark instinctively picked it back up. He turned to see Taeyong storming toward him.

“Huh?!” Mark managed.

“I just got a call from San. I can’t believe you stole another baby dragon!” Taeyong said, waving a phone in Mark’s direction.

Mark’s mouth opened and closed a few times in a decent impression of a Wishiwashi. “Wh- I-“ he sputtered, “I didn’t steal any dragons!”

Taeyong’s gaze dropped to the Gible in Mark’s arms and then back up to his face. He cocked an eyebrow. “Then what’s that?”

“I just found the Gible in the woods!” Mark said, already sweating at how flimsy his excuse sounded. “It was in a cardboard box in the woods, I swear! I didn’t even know that the Dragon Gym was missing a dragon!”

“You found it,” Taeyong deadpanned, “You just found a baby dragon in the woods in _winter_ with no parents while a baby Gible coincidentally happened to go missing from ATEEZ’s Gym at the exact same time.”

“Yes!” Mark cried desperately, “You have to believe me!”

“And why should I do that?”

“Just,” Mark set the baby dragon back down on the rug, “Come with me! The box should still be out there, I’ll prove it!”

“Mark…”

“I swear!”

Taeyong sighed. “Fine. Let’s go.” After leaving the baby Gible in a passing Jaehyun’s care, the two of them trudged back outside through the snow into the forest.

“I found it right here,” Mark said, double taking as he saw an empty patch of snow under the tree where the box had been. “It was right here!” He looked around, wondering if he’d somehow managed to confuse the tree with another that looked exactly like it.

“Right here?” Taeyong asked dryly.

“Yes! You remember, right Altaria?” Mark turned to his Pokemon desperately. Altaria bobbed its head.

Taeyong shook his head. “Mark. Give it up. I’ll take the Gible back to the Gym, but this is gonna cost you some stars.” Taeyong started back toward the Frontier despite Mark’s protests.

“You saw it too, right?” Mark asked. Altaria nodded. “What happened?” He kicked at the snow in defeat. “I’m still a Good Noodle.”

Meanwhile in a dorm room in the Frontier, Jisung and Donghyuck high fived. Another one bites the dust.

* * *

Sungchan and Shotaro may have been new faces around the Battle Frontier, but that just made the two of them more desperate to prove themselves to the others. Both of them had done pretty well carving out places for themselves in terms of battle prowess, but earning stars was hard when they weren’t even sure what chores were left for them to do half the time.

“What if we clean out the fireplace tonight?” Sungchan suggested. Both of them were situated in the reading room, trying to plot their next move.

“Yuta said he would do that,” Shotaro said, shaking his head.

“We could cook dinner?”

“Neither of us can cook that well.”

“Mop the arena?”

“Xiaojun, Hendery and YangYang already did that this morning.”

“Well, we could take the evening shift.”

“Renjun and Jeno signed up for that.”

“Bathrooms?”

“Johnny and Doyoung.”

Sungchan threw his hands up in exasperation. “We’re never going to earn stars at this rate!”

Shotaro tapped his fingers against the edge of the chair he was in. “We could go shopping? Cosmog could portal us to the Thrifty Megamart and back.” He pointed to Cosmog excitedly.

“Pew!” Cosmog said.

Sungchan brightened and his Poipole did a flip beside him. “That could work! We should ask Taeyong if there are any ingredients he needs.” They both hurriedly got up and began to search around the Frontier for Taeyong. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done as they seemed to _just_ miss the Frontier leader at every turn.

“Taeyong?” Kun said, pausing in sweeping up the Game Room. “I think he was headed to the Display Room.

“He was here a few minutes ago,” Jaemin said, polishing the glass around a mint condition Oki plushie. He made eye contact with the stuffed Raichu and grimaced before quickly looking away. “I think he said something about putting more logs in the fire place.”

“Yeah he was here, but I said I had it under control,” Lucas said, looking up from where he was poking at the fire wood as a small flame crackled merrily in the hearth. “I think he had to go ask Chenle something.”

“He was asking about a recipe,” Chenle said, dangling over the edge of his bunk bed to stare at the two exhausted newcomers. “I think he ran to the store to pick something up.”

“That’s what we were gonna do!” Sungchan wailed.

“You might be able to catch him on his way out,” Chenle said, already going back to his phone.

They raced to the front entrance, skidding to a halt at the front door. Sungchan and Shotaro both bent over, hands on their knees and breathing hard.

“Whoa.” They turned in unison to see Donghyuck standing with Jisung in the hallway. Donghyuck had a juice box in hand and a single eyebrow cocked in their direction. Somehow Donghyuck’s Pyukumuku also managed to look judgmental. “What are you two running around like a bunch of headless Torchic’s for?”

“We’re…” Sungchan huffed, “Trying… to find… Taeyong.” His Poipole gave him a look of concern as he tried to take a deep breath.

Jisung gave Donghyuck a panicked look, but Donghyuck didn’t even acknowledge the other’s expression. “Oh, Taeyong? I think he was going to either the laundry room or his room before heading out.” Jisung nodded furiously to back up Donghyuck’s words until Donghyuck elbowed him in the ribs, making Jisung stop abruptly.

Sungchan and Shotaro both held back groans. “But those are on opposite sides of the building!” Sungchan muttered, running a hand through his hair.

“Split up?” Shotaro offered.

“Pew!”

Sungchan sighed. “I guess. I’ll take upstairs, you take downstairs?” Shotaro nodded, and Sungchan jogged off in one direction while Shotaro went in the other.

“Sorry,” Jaehyun said once Sungchan had jogged up two flights of stairs and to the end of the dorm hall. The older boy was dumping trash from the waste baskets into a larger bag. “I haven’t seen him.”

“Poi…” Poipole said, patting Sungchan’s arm comfortingly.

“It’s okay,” Sungchan sighed. He pulled out his cellphone.

**Sungchan**

_I can’t find him :(_

**Shotaro**

_But he wasn’t down here either??? :/_

Sungchan frowned in confusion at Shotaro’s text. If Taeyong wasn’t in either spot then…

**Sungchan**

_Meet me back in the entryway_

Shotaro sent back a thumbs up emoji, and Sungchan left with a wave to Jaehyun. He retraced his steps much more slowly than he had coming up to the bedrooms. Shotaro was already waiting in the entryway when Sungchan arrived, brow furrowed as scrolled through his phone.

“Donghyuck said Taeyong was supposed to be in one of those places, right?” Shotaro asked, looking around. Donghyuck and Jisung had long since left, not that that surprised either of them. Jisung had muttered something at breakfast about trimming the leafy bits of his Regigigas, something that would probably take hours in the arena.

“I guess Taeyong was just faster,” Sungchan said. Shotaro pouted and Sungchan felt like doing the same.

“We had such a good idea though!”

“Pew…” Cosmog said.

“At this point, we might as well just call it,” Sungchan said, “We’ve already wasted the whole afternoon running around.”

At that moment the front door swung open, startling both of them. In the doorway stood Taeyong, arms laden with groceries, holding the door open with his foot as he struggled to get all the bags inside.

“Oh, I got it!” Shotaro said, moving to hold the door open.

“Need help?” Sungchan asked, holding out his hands to take some of Taeyong’s bags. Taeyong handed over two gratefully.

“Thanks,” Taeyong said. “I didn’t plan on going to pick up that much, so I thought I’d be fine on my own. When I got there I realized we were low on more than I thought.”

Shotaro took another couple of Taeyong’s bags and the three of them headed toward the kitchen. Sungchan and Shotaro were both able to help Taeyong put away the groceries, and they even earned a star each for it, but it was nowhere near the number they’d been hoping to get that day.

Shotaro sighed as he looked over the Good Noodle chart. “We don’t have much longer left,” he muttered.

“We’ll have to try again tomorrow,” Sungchan said, feet already aching at the prospect of running around the Frontier the next day as well.

* * *

“Hendery!” Xiaojun called, “Come over here and tell me what you see when you look at this chart.”

Hendery looked up from the package of trail mix he’d been rifling through and walked over to Xiaojun who was glaring up at the Good Noodle chart. Hendery looked at the chart himself, glancing at all the columns and stars. He was quietly pleased that he had a respectable number, more than YangYang at least. “It’s… the Good Noodle chart?” Hendery offered hesitantly.

That clearly wasn’t the answer that Xiaojun was looking for, as he frowned. “Do you see anything wrong with this chart?”

Hendery looked again. The lines were all straight and the members were all accounted for, including the two new arrivals to the Frontier. There weren’t even any typos in the English, Chinese, Japanese or Thai spellings of some members’ names that were included next to their Korean versions. Hendery blanked. “I… I don’t see anything.”

“Who’s winning so far?” Xiaojun prompted, tapping his foot impatiently.

“Oh,” Hendery said, pulling out a square pretzel and popping it into his mouth. His eyes flicked through the columns. “It looks like… Donghyuck and Jisung. Wait.”  
“EXACTLY!” Xiaojun blurted. “Donghyuck and Jisung! How are _they_ beating us for Best Noodle?”

“Jisung’s won before,” Hendery pointed out, “But I see what you’re saying about Donghyuck.” The other boy was usually toward the lower end of the Good Noodle chart, constantly losing points for arguing with other members and failing to keep his Groudon under control. He remembers one time when Donghyuck had accidentally (or maybe not) created a new island and Taeyong had gotten so mad that Donghyuck had not only lost stars, but gotten negative stars.

“They have to be cheating somehow,” Xiaojun said, “Or maybe sabotaging the chart!”

“That seems like it’d be a bit extreme,” Hendery said.

“But there’s a prize this month!” Xiaojun said, “They probably agreed to split it or something.”

“I guess…”

“So,” Xiaojun said, looking at Hendery expectantly.

“So?” Hendery asked, raising an eyebrow.

“What are we gonna do about them?”

Hendery blinked. “Well, what _can_ we do about them?” Troublemaker or not, Donghyuck was beyond clever. If he was really orchestrating this whole thing, it’d be difficult to catch and expose him.

Xiaojun seemed to deflate a bit as he realized the same thing. “We… We could try and ask the others whether they’ve noticed if Donghyuck and Jisung are up to anything?”

“I doubt there’d be much evidence. And the others are so focused on this competition they probably haven’t been paying attention to them either,” Hendery pointed out.

“Well, maybe we could sabotage them back?”

“You really want to draw Donghyuck’s attention to _us_ when we haven’t been targeted by him yet?”

Xiaojun grimaced. “You’re right. I guess we’ll have to leave it until we have proof. In the meantime, tell me if you hear any of the other members say anything about the two of them.”

Hendery nodded. “Will do. I hope if they are up to something Taeyong takes all their stars.”

* * *

It was one week before Christmas, and Johnny was starting to feel the first tinge of worry. He was usually pretty relaxed, so this was a fairly new feeling for him and, he had to say, he would give it a negative review on Yelp if he could. He scowled into his cereal as his eyes inevitably trailed back toward the Good Noodle chart once more despite his best efforts to ignore it. His Rufflet chirped worriedly from the seat next to him.

“Woah,” Jaehyun said, plopping down in the seat across the table from Johnny, protein shake in hand. He was partially blocking the chart now, including the portion with Johnny’s name. Johnny was grateful. “Who pissed in your Cherubi-O’s this morning?”

Jaehyun’s Fletchling cheerfully hopped into the chair next to Jaehyun. It tried to hop up onto the table as well, but Jaehyun absentmindedly pushed it back into the chair. Fletchling gave him an offended expression.

“I’m too far behind,” Johnny said, “On the chart.” He clarified.

“Huh, I didn’t think you’d actually be trying to win,” Jaehyun said before taking a large gulp of his shake.

“There’s a few stores in Galar that I wanted to see,” Johnny said. “They’re pretty famous brands in the region I’m from.”

“Makes sense,” Jaehyun nodded. “Well, how far behind are you?”

Johnny angrily stuffed a spoonful of Cherubi-O’s into his mouth before answering. “Ten stars,” he mumbled.

“Damn.”

“Yeah.”

“So what’s your plan? You don’t have much time left.”

Johnny sighed. “That’s the problem. There’s no way I can catch up in one week, even with all my chores. I think I’m going to have to throw in the towel.”

“Ruff…” His Rufflet said, feathers seeming to droop with Johnny’s mood.

“Don’t say that. When has the great Johnny Seo ever given up?”

Johnny frowned. “Dammit, you’re right. I need to think…” He chased the remaining soggy cereal bits around his bowl with his spoon. “I guess I could do the laundry today? I think it was Ten’s turn but he said he was going out to get some supplies so he probably wouldn’t get around to it until later.”

“There you go,” Jaehyun said. His Fletchling chirped happily. It tried to jump back up on the table, but Jaehyun pushed it back once more. “I’d get a move on before another member has the same idea.”

“Right,” Johnny said, quickly shoveling the rest of the cereal into his mouth. “Let’s go, bud!”

“Rufflet!” his Pokemon chirped happily, fluttering after Johnny as he took his dishes to the sink, rinsed them out and put them in the dishwasher. “Thanks, Jaehyun!”

“No problem, bro,” Jaehyun said, waving them off. “Fletchling, for the last time _no table_!”

Twenty minutes later, Johnny was already staring to regret his idea. Laundry was always a daunting task with twenty three men living in the same building, but this seemed to be even more of a load than they usually had. Johnny was exhausted just trying to lug all the laundry down to the laundry room, and he hadn’t even began sorting them yet.

“We may have made a mistake,” he said, looking at the mountain of laundry in despair.

“Flet,” Rufflet chirped worriedly.

Johnny let out a breath. “Nope, we’re gonna do this!” he said, hoping that saying the words aloud would make the task less challenging. It didn’t really work, but Johnny was _determined_ to see it through. “Okay bud, let’s start sorting whites and darks.”

“Ruff!”

It was another forty minutes before all the laundry sat in three massive piles, and another ten before the first two were loaded into the two washers. Johnny’s arms and back were hurting already from constantly bending over to pick up laundry and fiddle with the machine, but he was still trying to put on a brave face (mainly because being defeated by a load of laundry would just be embarrassing).

Once the first loads were done and moved to the dryer and the remaining pile moved to a washer, Johnny groaned at the thought of taking all the laundry out, folding it, and returning it to all the rooms. He was at least grateful that all their clothes had their names sewn somewhere in them so it wasn’t a guessing game of what clothing went where. Of course, that never stopped some members from stealing others’ clothes occasionally.

Eventually, the two dryers were done, and Johnny pulled all the clothes into one laundry basket to be sorted in the common area and moved the wet clothes to a dryer. He then took all the laundry out to dump out on one of the large couches in the common area. It looked even more numerous once it was spread out.

Johnny rolled up his sleeves and began to sort the clothes by room, folding them along the way. That alone took nearly fifty minutes. He then loaded it all back up in the laundry basket, careful to try and keep the clothes separated by room, before heading upstairs to redistribute all the clean laundry. He was greeted either by empty rooms or an absent minded word of thanks if there was anyone in the room when he arrived.

He trudged back downstair, Rufflet flapping behind him, as he picked up the now dry clothes to repeat the process again. That took another forty minutes as the color load was significantly greater than the other two. He glanced out the window to see the sun was already starting to set. He’d been at this nearly all day, he thought balefully as he took the folded clothes back upstairs to distribute those. It was worth it though, as he saw all the empty laundry hampers in the laundry room. Surely this would be worth a few stars.

Taeyong noticed Johnny as he passed the laundry room as Johnny was putting away all the fabric softeners and dryer sheets. “Did you do the laundry today?” Taeyong asked.

“Yep!” Johnny said proudly.

“Flet!” Rufflet puffed up at his side, and Johnny patted its head in amusement.

Taeyong looked gratifyingly impressed. “Wow, nice job! It wasn’t even your turn today.”

“I know,” Johnny said, “But I thought Ten could use a hand.”

Taeyong smiled. “That was nice of you. I can’t thank you enough. I’ll give you a few stars on the chart-“

He was cut off as Donghyuck rushed into the laundry room. “Johnny!” he pouted. “You forgot my room!”

Johnny blanched. He was sure he’d grabbed the laundry basket from Donghyuck’s room before he started. “What?”

“You forgot mine!” Donghyuck said, holding up a drawstring bag. Johnny grabbed the bag and pulled it open and, sure enough, there was a pile of dirty towels in there.

“I… I thought I did them,” Johnny said, confusion and despair seeping into his voice, “Sorry, Hyuck.”

“No worries! You can just do them now!” Donghyuck said sweetly, oblivious to Johnny’s stomach dropping.

“Pyu!” Donghyuck’s Pyukumuku said.

“Yeah…” Johnny said, not even watching Donghyuck leave the laundry room as he stared at the bag in his hands.

Taeyong placed a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. “Don’t worry, you’ll still get stars.” Johnny tried not to cry.

‘There’s no way I’m doing this again,’ Johnny thought, mentally kissing his trip to Galar goodbye, ‘I’d rather let Raikou stand next to me on a rainy day.’

* * *

There were only three days left in the competition, and Jungwoo was contemplating Frontier wide destruction. Not complete destruction, of course, just enough destruction that he could swoop in ‘miraculously’ and clean it up and, in the process, impress Taeyong so much that the other gave him a hundred stars. Perhaps he could ask Mew to go to the arena and create a very tiny landslide in the rocky cliff area? No, that probably wouldn’t work…

“Okay, now just do what I do!”

Jungwoo was pulled from his musings to look out the window and see that Lucas was currently in the process of demonstrating how to chop firewood to his Mewtwo. Said Pokemon looked understandably nervous about the axe Lucas was holding in his hands. Lucas lifted the axe over his head and brought it down in one clean motion, splitting a log that had been sitting on its end in front of him. Mewtwo looked suitably impressed.

“Do you think you could use your Psychic?” Lucas asked. Mewtwo tilted its head in what Jungwoo thought might be a shrug. Jungwoo blinked at the pair. Maybe he could use this. If annihilation wouldn’t work, then wouldn’t helping others with their chores still get stars? Only one way to find out.

“Hey!” he called to Lucas and Mewtwo, jogging out the doors with Mew by his side. Mewtwo immediately tensed at the sound of Jungwoo’s voice, but relaxed minutely as Jungwoo and Mew approached. “What are you guys up to?”

Lucas beamed. “Hey, man! We’re chopping extra firewood! I think Kun wants to roast marshmallows tonight, so he had us go gather some extra.”

“Do you need any help?” Jungwoo asked.

“Mew!”

“Hm, well I was going to try and use this to help Mewtwo control his Psychic,” Lucas said, “Hey, since Mew has pretty good control, could you two help demonstrate?”

Jungwoo brightened, “Sure!” He turned to Mew. “Do you want to help?”

“Mew!” The pink Pokemon did a flip midair.

“Yeah, we’ll help!”  
“Thanks, man!” Lucas said, looking relieved, “I wasn’t really sure how to explain this part.”

Jungwoo looked around and spotted the pile of logs that Lucas had presumably collected. He picked one up and set it down in front of Mew, standing on one end. “Okay, Mew,” he began, “I think the main trick is going to be the precision, not the force. I’m sure both Mewtwo and you are plenty strong enough to split a log, but we want to split it in half.”

Mew squinted its eyes at the log. “Mew!”

“So you remember how Lucas split the lot? Try to send your Psychic right down the middle like that,” Jungwoo coached.

“Mew,” The Pokemon’s eyes started to glow an electric blue, and the log began to shimmer with the same energy. “Mew!” The log split in half, splinters flying as Jungwoo raised a hand to shield his eyes. When he lowered it, the log was indeed in two pieces, though they were a bit uneven.

“Good job!” he still praised, “We may have to focus a bit more on precision though.”

“Mew!”

“Did you see that, big guy?” Lucas asked Mewtwo. The Pokemon nodded. “You have to focus on exactly where you want the energy to go. If you lose focus it could probably be very bad. Maybe even explode!” Though Lucas still looked cheerful talking about a possible explosion, Mewtwo looked distantly horrified.

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad,” Jungwoo said, “Like Lucas was saying, you just need to focus.”

“Mew, mew!” Mew chirped, floating in playful circles around its purple counterpart.

“Here,” Lucas said, placing a log in front of Mewtwo, “Give it a try!”

Mewtwo regarded the log with trepidation before raising a hand toward it. Lucas nodded encouragingly. Mewtwo began to shimmer with the same kind of energy Mewtwo had, and Jungwoo stepped back and closed his eyes preemptively.

There was a loud _crack!_ and when Jungwoo opened his eyes he found the log had split into two pieces, though one was significantly larger than the other. Mewtwo looked disappointed.

“Hey, no need to be down,” Lucas said, “That’s what practice is for!” He placed another log in front of Mewtwo. “Try again!”

The Pokemon narrowed its eyes in determination. It raised its hand again and-

The log split only instead of splinters, a shower of glitter flew out of the log, causing all of them to jerk back in surprise. Jungwoo shrieked as the unexpected shower of sparkles rained down on him, only to immediately regret the decision as a number of them landed in his mouth. He sputtered, scraping at his tongue, though that seemed to only worsen his predicament as glitter covered his hands.

“What the-?” Lucas cried, dusting of his arms futilely his arms.

Mewtwo looked both bewildered and embarrassed by the situation, clearly believing it had done something wrong. Even Lucas’ reassurances didn’t seem to help its brooding.

“Mew!” Mew said, seemingly the only one amused as it spun around, fur throwing off sparkles of light.

“This is never going to come off!” Jungwoo wailed, shaking out his shirt. Despite all of them trying for the next twenty minutes to get cleaned up outside, they didn’t manage to remove all the glitter before trudging back indoors in defeat.

“What are you doing?!” Taeyong yelled as soon as he saw them trailing glitter all over the floor. “Just! Stand there! Don’t move!” He ran off to go get… something.

Jungwoo groaned. He was definitely not going to get more stars today.

* * *

“Three… two… one,” Taeyong said, “That’s it!” He looked up from his watch and smilled at Track.

“Raptor!”

“The Good Noodle chart is coming down!” Taeyong said loudly. Distant groans of Frontier members sounded through the halls. Taeyong pulled the chart off the wall, smiling at all the stars that shimmered on top of it. “Time to start counting!”

“Star!”

* * *

There was a nervous excitement hanging in the air at dinner that night. Despite the wonderful meal Kun and Taeyong had cooked, many of the members were rushing through their food as fast as they could, eager to hear the results of the Good Noodle contest. Donghyuck had a smug look on his face, and his Pyukumuku looked equally triumphant.

“Don’t worry,” Donghyuck said to a nervous Jisung, “I counted all the stars before Taeyong took the chart down. We’re winning by a mile.”

“But what if someone figured it-“ Jisung began, only to be cut off with a yelp as Donghyuck pinched him.

“Shhh!”

“Alright,” Taeyong said, loudly, immediately silencing all the members for once. “I have the announcement you’ve all been waiting for.” The tension in the room increased exponentially, with members darting glances at each other.

“Let me begin,” Taeyong said, “By saying how proud I am of all of you. You’ve all worked very hard this month and I want to say thank you. No matter what the outcome is, you all did well.”

“Raptor,” Track said, bobbing its head by Taeyong’s side.

“Also I have one less happy announcement before I give the results,” Taeyong said, turned to Donghyuck, “Jisung and Donghyuck… you are both disqualified.”

Donghyuck’s eyes widened, “What?!”

Taeyong gave him an unimpressed look. “Did you really think I wouldn’t find out what you two have been up to this month?”

Donghyuck glared around the table as Jisung buried his face in his hands, only the tips of his red ears visible. “Who snitched?!”

“That doesn’t matter-“ Taeyong began.

“You were so obvious!” Xiaojun blurted, “I was able to figure it out almost immediately! And there was plenty of evidence once we looked at your computer search history!”

“That’s an invasion of privacy!”

“All’s fair in love and Good Noodle wars!”

Mark turned to Donghyuck with a betrayed expression, “YOU stole the baby dragon!”

“ALRIGHT,” Taeyong said, stopping the members, “What’s done is done. Donghyuck and Jisung, we’ll talk after dinner.” Donghyuck crossed his arms and sat back in his seat as Jisung looked like he wanted the kitchen floor to swallow him whole.

“You two wouldn’t have won anyway,” Taeyong said, “There was someone who had more stars than you.”

Donghyuck stopped pouting and sat up ramrod straight. “Wait, who? I was sure we were in the lead!”

“Unfortunately you failed to notice one member was steadily gaining stars throughout the whole month. He’s worked hard without looking for a reward, and for that reason I gave him ten stars today for his efforts,” Taeyong said.

Everyone in the group looked at each other with confusion.

Taeyong smiled, “Congratulations… WinWin!”

“Star!” Track cawed in approval.

All eyes immediately shot toward Sicheng, sitting on one end of the table who was currently frozen with a spoonful of soup broth halfway to his mouth. He looked up to see everyone staring at him, spilling his broth back into the bowl in the process.

“WinWin,” Donghyuck groaned, slapping a hand over his face “Of course! We forgot to get him!”

“Uh,” Sicheng said, looking unnerved by all the attention.

“Tini!” his Victini said, taking advantage of Sicheng’s confusion to steal his bowl of soup.

Taeyong continued beaming. “Congratulations,” he repeated, “You’ve won the Best Noodle contest, including the Battle Buffet All-You-Can-Eat pass and a trip to Galar with a friend. Let me know later who you want to travel with, and we can work out the date.”

“Good job, Sicheng!” Yuta said, grinning at the other boy, “You’ll take me, right?”

“No, he’s going with me!” Taeil protested.

“What about me?” Jungwoo whined, putting on his cutest puppy dog expression that had an 80% success rate.

“I’m his favorite!” Yuta said.

“No, Mark’s his favorite,” Ten said, because he liked to watch the world burn.

The table devolved into arguments and appeals to Sicheng to be chosen for the trip to Galar. More and more of the members turned to him with expectant gazes, and Sicheng felt dread climbing up his spine. He turned to his Victini in desperation, but the Pokemon offered him no aid as it slurped at his bowl of soup. ‘Traitor,’ he thought.

Sicheng nearly flinched as a hand landed on his shoulder, and he looked up to see Taeyong. “Good job. I hope that next year you’ll try hard to be Best Noodle again!” Taeyong said, oblivious to Sicheng’s suffering.

‘No,’ Sicheng thought desperately, as more and more members converged on him with expectant eyes, ‘If this happens again, then next year I’ll just sleep until the month’s over.’

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Holidays, friend!!! I hope you are having a wonderful day!


End file.
